Is it Spring Yet?!?

Senior Sam Sivilotti and junior Greg Blohowiak, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will once again be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

They are back for their second go around and today is their third entry.

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Holy Barnacle Batman...

What a totally random title for this weeks "Diamond Chronicles". If I could choose a word for the past two weeks, 'random' would be up there. Starting in Clarksville, Tennessee, with two games cancelled due to weather and our lone game on Sunday lengthened by rain delays and numerous “lightning is within 10 miles” warnings.

The doozie, however, was in the 10th inning - Illinois State had two runners on with no outs and, alas, another lightning warning that actually turned into us retreating into the gym due to the tornado sirens blaring outside. As we watched two Austin Peay basketball players shoot around and quite frankly in unimpressive fashion, not dunk, we wondered if the field would still be around when we returned. Long story short, it was, and that game is history. The final game vs. Austin Peay was cancelled and we returned home.

Siv and I did not ignore the Diamond Chronicles this past week. We were actually caught in a very tough position with the amount of schoolwork we had to finish before the Thursday bus departure time. We apologize for not fulfilling our duties as far as blogging goes however, to be brutally honest, we wouldn’t have much good to say. As far as this weekend in Arkansas goes, the same could be said, but we’ll do our best to describe how the team is feeling as a whole following it.

We departed at noon on Thursday and made our way on a 12-hour (or 10, or 14, or 11, depending on which guy on the team you talk to) trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Movies, cards, dumb bus games and some school work later, we arrived and checked into the Clarion Inn.

We all practically hit the sheets right away with the exception of a couple rooms who took the opportunity to stay up a little later to become more acclimated with one another. Breakfast, busing and batting practice all concluded we found ourselves standing on the line at Baum Stadium for the national anthem. It was a really hard fought game, and we gave them everything they could handle and then some, however as you can see we came out on the wrong end of the result. This loss definitely left us with a sour taste in our mouth because of our overwhelming ability to beat ourselves. At this point I can confidentially say that we have yet to really get beaten. We have found a way to break down, one way or another, during the course of two or three innings and give the opposing team the advantage.

It is staggering to see how hard we work and fight during practice and games to get better only to take a step backward during a select 10 minutes of a game. We dug ourselves a six-run deficit early on and proudly we climbed back into the game only to see our efforts squashed following a few walks, errors and a balk in there and lose, 15-6. That final score was not indicative of the game whatsoever. But whatever right, we had to bite our lip and come out with a chip on our shoulder the next day and play the game we love.

Saturday’s game was one that I thought would end in a 20-19 score. The way that both teams scored runs in the first half of the game was scary. Our offense jumped out to a lead only to see it go away. We then built up another lead of three to only see the same happen. That game ended 13-9 which slowed from my anticipated final, but was still a high-scoring game, especially since the new bats this year.

That game featured nine total errors (three for us and six for them) and a handful of walks and hit batsmen. It was another game in which we left with a sour taste in our mouths. We felt embarrassed to be out there for two straight days and perform the same way both days. We mimicked our game one mistakes and mental mishaps and probably added a couple new mistakes. It really isn’t a good feeling, as some of you can attest, to be in the driver's seat of a game to only see the momentum shift so dramatically that you feel as though you’ve had no say in it.

That's how I feel the game went, one momentum swing after another. But hey, we still have another game to play, and we can only log this game into our memory bank and continue onward. Our goal is to continue to get better day after day while playing baseball the right way, whether that is taking a positive and repeating it or taking a negative, such as the last two games, and learn from it.

Quick Thoughts from Blow...The dumb bus games we play (hat game, travel game, “shooting game..?”, camping game, and “this is how you play the game” game) are really fun to do with the freshmen, especially when they are completely flabbergasted ... the expression is priceless ... however, last year pitcher Cale Tassi was sooo confused and mad he went and looked up on google the different games while on the bus, so he didn’t feel left out. Can you say bush league?! ... Freshmen Mike Porcaro is yet to grab the rim ... we’re waiting Mikey P ... Arkansas is a really fun place to play but I hate it so much ... thanks a ton to the Candyman who takes pictures for the opposing teams and brings them treats (tootsie rolls, jolly ranchers, bubbleyum, and even better Peanut butter cookies). We need to get some Diamond Girl tryouts at UWM ... the Clarion Inn was better last year ... mainly because NCAA’s for Track and Field were held at Arkansas and everyone stayed there ... made for a sweet hotel atmosphere ... lastly, I wanna thank The Dave Matthews Band for keeping my sanity on this bus ride ... there is a certain artist and song for everyone, I urge you to find yours. Dave Matthews Band “What You Are” is mine...

Here’s Sam…

Alright everyone, back from a week off and boy do we have some things to catch up on. As Blow mentioned, our week of absence was not intentional but merely influenced by the amount of homework and tests we had to prepare for. All in all, we have been pretty busy between traveling, playing ball and maintain our school schedules. With that being said, we have been playing some baseball along the way.

Blow mentioned our trip to Austin Peay. Definitely was not the results we were looking for. The first game was a total debacle … simply didn’t pitch the ball, hit the ball or field the ball efficiently enough to give ourselves a chance to win.

Ironically, Sunday’s game with Illinois State was the complete opposite of the first game for the first 24 outs. Illinois State took it to us on Saturday, but we came out with something to prove. We wanted to earn some respect and dignity back. We played well and endured the two or three rain/tornado delays that took place throughout the day. Unfortunately, with an 8-4 lead going into the top of the ninth it simply wasn’t enough. They ended up scoring four in the top half and took the game into extra innings. We managed to shut them down in the tenth but as another tornado warning came through the area we needed to the clear the field. All three teams (Illinois State, Austin Peay and us) went into the Dunn Center, Austin Peay's Basketball Arena, and had a little comedic relief watching some of their basketball and football players shoot around.

Eventually, we took the field an hour and a half later and weren’t able to hold off the storm as Illinois State scored five in the top of the 11th to cap off the day with a sour taste in our mouths.

Practice that week was not fun or entertaining to say the least. A lot of groundballs, mechanical work and running was essentially the agenda for the week. We knew we had something coming after the poor performances over the weekend. Although a little hot and bothered by the performance on the weekend the coaches and players alike understood that we needed to put that behind us and prepare for the nationally-ranked Razorbacks.

On to the bus again Thursday and another journey in front of us.

We arrived in Fayetteville, AR, late Thursday evening and received our room assignments. Everyone pretty much went to bed except maybe myself, Doug Dekoning and Eric King. Instead of sacking up for the night and getting some quality sleep we decided to watch four consecutive episodes of “U.S. Marshalls” on A&E and bunked up around 3:00 in the morning. The next morning and the next three days consisted of the same thing. Up early, eat breakfast, get to the field, play our game and back to the hotel and off to dinner. The three game set had its fair share of ups and downs. Blow did a good job of summarizing so I would prefer to not relive the replays of those games considering we could of came out of there with a series win.

Up next, the California sunshine as we head to the west coast to play four games against San Jose State, Santa Clara and UC Davis. Follow us along the way and we will be more efficient in our postings as this one took a while. Once again, we will keep grinding it out, stick with us and the results will be there when its all said and done. Remember its not where you start the year but where you finish it! We’ll see you all next week!